Creation and the gift of awareness

Is self awareness a gift or an accident?

Quotes and comments;

A. "Self-awareness is a supreme gift, a treasure as precious as life." - Irvin Yalom [1.]

- Self awareness is a gift Yalom tells us . This somnolent statement ignores the fact that a gift must come from a person. Since Yalom claims to be a materialist, awareness (whatever else he can say about it) can't be a gift - as there is no Person from whom it is offered. Yalom is asleep at the keyboard, nodding off over his notebook when he writes this way. If he wants to be consistent he can't speak of awareness as a gift - he can only speak of it as an accident.

He's using language from another worldview; speaking as if this was a personal universe, not the impersonal one he speaks about elsewhere in his books and talks.

In the materialist model of the universe people find presents under the tree, but claim no one put them there. The materialist has no one to thank for this 'gift' of awareness. (If we reject creation we remove the foundation for worship.)

B. In speaking of the awareness of death (what he calls death anxiety) Yalom quotes from the epic of Gilgamesh;
"Thou hast become dark and cannot hear me. When I die, shall I not be like Enkidu? Sorrow enters my heart. I am afraid of death." [2.]

- Anyone who claims they're not afraid of death is likely dead already.

In orthodox Christian theology the fear of death, at its deepest level is a fear of judgment. An existentialist like Yalom claims to be willing to 'stare at the sun' but when he denies a life after death he reveals to us that's he not willing to look things at the deepest level after all. (Some of us follow Epicurus, and some of us aspire to follow Calvin. Some of us think the goal or ideal of life is personal tranquility, and some think it's godliness.)

Notes;
1. Staring at the sun; overcoming the terror of death - Irvin Yalom/p.1
A. "Self-awareness is a supreme gift, a treasure as precious as life. This is what makes us human."
- Self-awareness is a vital part of being human, but it's not what makes us human. What makes us human is that we were created in the image of God.
B. ibid
2. Gift;
- c.1100, from O.N. gift, from P.Gmc. *giftiz (cf. O.Fris. jefte, M.Du. ghifte "gift," Ger. Mitgift "dowry"), from PIE base *ghabh- "to give or receive" (see habit). O.E. cognate gift meant "bride-price, marriage gift (by the groom), dowry" (O.E. for "giving, gift" was related giefu). Sense of "natural talent" is c.1300.
- We might say that materialists have a real gift for appropriating theistic language :=)
3. Gift;Websters/1913
1. Anything given; anything voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation; a present; an offering.
2. The act, right, or power of giving or bestowing.